AMERICAN PSYCHO Previews — Page 6

Yes, I think those entire sections are supposed to be darkly humorous. The only parts of the novel that aren't a black comedy, and completely omitted from the film, are the detailed torture and murder scenes. Some of it is rather stomach churning and disgusting to get through. 

 

I guess I will put up a slight spoilers tag to discuss the murders**********

 

 

The ending is a little ambiguous, but I believe zero murders have actually been committed. Patrick is a shell of a human being- I think he has a monologue where he says he has the outward appearance of a human, but the only two emotions he is capable of feeling are greed and disgust. His materialistic obsessions have consumed him and hollowed him out. I think he is so bored with life and his friends that he imagines these horrible murders as the only way he can feel alive and experience exhilaration, joy, etc. 

 

He applies the same detailed descriptions of clothes and food to what he would do to all his victims. His delusions start to spin into total madness. In the film they make this section pretty clear when the ATM tells him to feed it the kitten and he shoots the security guard only walk back through the revolving door to find him still alive. The helicopter chase ensues and he leaves that voicemail for his lawyer. (In the novel a park bench gets up and starts chasing him!)

 

Patrick goes to Paul's apartment expecting to find rotting bodies, but instead a realtor is showing the place to a couple. The kicker is of course the conversation with the lawyer where he thinks Patrick was making a big joke. He tells Patrick that he dined with Paul not once but twice in London over the past 10 days. (Of course everyone is misidentified so often in the book that you could argue the lawyer had been eating with someone else he mistook for Paul, but that was not my takeaway at this point in the story.)

Yeah, the gay slurs absolutely need to stay. They represent the Wall Street culture of time (and perhaps still today) all too well. The movie unfortunately lifted most of them (I think they changed Patick calling Luis a faggot to a doofus, which totally changes the meaning and level of contempt/hatred Patrick has for his colleagues).

Yep, that response was for you, SweetLips. :)

 

That scene with the realtor is very David Lynch- you could easily see it taking place with Naomi Watts' character in Mulholland Drive. 

 

Did you come about the ad in the Times? 

Yes I did. 

There was no ad in the Times. I think you should leave and never come back. 

 

There really is a theatrically about the whole thing that makes one want it to be on stage as a play with music or a full blown musical. 

Whether the murders Patrick commits are real or not has always been a question of debate.  The characters in Brett Easton Ellis's novels are all notoriously unreliable narrators.  But what is kind of fun is that all his novels are 'linked' to the same universe and characters from his earlier works routinely pop up in his latest novels.  A couple of the characters who are gruesomely murdered in AMERICAN PSYCHO later turn up (alive and well) in books like GLAMORAMA which take place years later -- which leads most people to think he murders in AMERICAN PSYCHO are fantasies. We also learn from the canon that Patrick's brother, Sean and mother both have a hard time separating reality from fantasy. So we never really know what is real and what isn't. Perhaps Ellis's point is that reality is subjective to whoever is experiencing it.

 

Here is an article that explains how all of Ellis's novels fit together.  

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/this-is-how-all-the-bret-easton-ellis-novels-fit-together#.cwWxy7Qd7

Updated On: 3/26/16 at 09:53 AM

If I remember correctly the director of the film talks about the murders being real as well in the audio commentary on the blu-ray but I still think even the film leaves it open to interpretation.

In the film, I may have been misled into thinking the murders were really committed, when Patrick tried to convince his lawyer that he was guilty of all the crimes, but wasn't believed. And so he got away with it. That scenario made sense to me!

Oh well

I saw the show opening preview and the more i think about it the more i like it! I would see it again. The end of Act 1 was so great!

So far I've only listened to You are what you wear and A Girl Before. I really like them. They've definitely grown on me. I'm suprised that I like any of it because I HATED Spring Awakening 

Just saw the evening performance today. I loved it, very slick design and projections, love the EDM-base score, and everyone does pretty great with their roles. It was completely sold out. I was able to get obstructed view this morning and even though I couldn't see one side of the stage (second to last seat right front row mezzanine), it is staged very symmetrically so you never really miss much. Also they had a lot of Merch surprisingly (magnets, portable battery, headphones, cufflinks) with at least 5 different shirts. But they had no mediums in any size which I was upset about. Anyone find them selling merchandise online yet?

Didn't try. It was so crowded I figured it would be insane. Also the runtime was a bit long, got out around 10:45. They definitely could tighten the first act. It did start to drag and the story got somewhat confusing. A change in costume here, trimming of a scene there, you've got a hit. Not Hamilton level, but one of the top 3 new musicals of the season. Definitely bests musical nominee. Definitely will win lighting and some other design awards.

I saw the show tonight, and really, really loved it. While this may not be the best "musical" i've seen this season, it's probably the best "show." The production is exhilarating in every way, and is setting new limits for what is possible to happen on Broadway. I've many shows over the years, and it was very refreshing to see some new effects, and a lot of bold style choices. As a whole, the show is unapologetically strange, and the cast sells every second of it.

I usually call things cheesy or cheap when I see it, but I was invested in the use of the 80s songs - it helped build a world for the show to live in. The projections are first class, and impeccably done. They, along with the lighting and sound design, are supporting the world of the show, and not taking it over, which is what I loved. Also, speaking of sound, this was the best sound design I have ever heard in a theatre, ever. I was in the back of the mezzanine, and everything was clear and very well balanced. I was really impressed.

The performances were great all around, even though they may not all have the best material in the world. Benjamin Walker is fantastic in voice and presence, but his character reaches his peak early in Act 2, and in my opinion, lingers there until the end of the show. This allowed Jennifer Damiano to truly shine, and I think she steals the show. Helene York, who I adored in Bullets Over Broadway, does a great job here, but her character doesn't have much of an arc. And then miss Alice Ripley. We know she's incredible, but her role (or 3 roles) here, are not any bigger than some other minor featured characters. I actually laughed, because her "song" in Act 2 only lasts for about 60 seconds, before Jennifer Damiano completely takes over! It's a shame, but they would need to seriously rework the entire scene where she plays his mother to make her stand out more. 

I thought Act 1 is fine and doesn't need much attention. Act 2, on the other hand, does. Like I said earlier, Patrick reaches his peak in "Killing Spree," and then the show gets very slow. The first thought I had, was they should put the first two songs of Act 2 into the end of Act 1, and then use Act 2 to explore how the murders effect him. I only suggest that because they haven't found a way to execute that plot line well at the middle/end of act 2. Act 1 was an hour and 10 minutes, and Act 2 was the same. The houselights didn't come on until around 10:48.

You could say that the show is much more graphic in sex than it is in violence, especially when you compare it to "Let The Right One In" which just had buckets of blood. But I think there was enough violence to get the point across. However, I haven't seen the movie, so I'm not sure if there's more in that, that would leave people wanting more.

Also, can we talk about the opening sequence of the show? I thought it was terrifying, and I knew I was in for a wild ride. 

After Eight said: " 

A few laughs were garnered mocking the vacuous and superficial milieu in question. Unfortunately, the show is as sterile and trite as the object if its mockery. It's slickly staged and well performed, but the book is leaden, and completely founders in the second act. The score is nondescript.

 

Benjamin Walker is convincing, and Helene Yorke is quite good. Jennifer Damiano is saddled with a drab role (much as in Spider-man). Alice Ripley's talents are sorely underused here."

 

My thoughts exactly. Wow, did I not get this show. Just not for me.
Everyone is fine. Walker is pretty, Yorke is good and Damiano is fine but always seems a downer.
But that score is so techno, that I felt as if I were hearing the same song over and over again.
I wish them well, but I don't get it. I left the show shaking my head, feeling as if I needed a shower.